Introduction
Global culture exist on the bases of people’s common needs, and challenges which makes them to form societies through which they can tackle these challenges. These societies start as families then involve the extended families within a short period of time this becomes a community (Bulliet, 119). Meanwhile, this involves different communities forming both urban and rural groups. When the challenges extend beyond the ability of the communities it affects the whole nation, different nations extend hands among themselves in an effort to face their challenges forming a global society, consulting each other on how to solve common problems as well as satisfying their common needs.
Main body
Some people as well go for negative answer when it comes to the matters of global culture. They believe that, global culture does not exist. The negative answer can be based on the research done by Geert Hofstede regarding the cultural dimensions. His research was based on comparing the values and behaviors in different organizations across nations (Kawasaki, 99). He concluded that every nation has got its cultural practices depending on the power and authority in each nation, level of masculinity and femininity, collectivism and individualism among others.
Geert Hofstede suggests that the less powerful people in any organization believe that power is distributed unequally. Both the leaders and the followers are the determinant of the equality or the inequality in the society. For instance he gave an example of Arab countries which have a very high power distance of 80 and the Austria with very low power distance of 11 (Kawasaki, 102). These two can never share any common culture. In terms of femininity and masculinity, he suggested that Germany and the United States have almost the same level of masculine culture and probably similar values. However, Netherlands has totally different values due to its low level of masculinity, and it can not share its culture with other named two states.
On my side, I support the global culture and disregard the Hofstede cultural dimension as it is old and the world is dynamic (Jennifer, 112). Every country is putting on extra efforts to adopt the modern way of life as well as foregoing some of the traditional practices. Through this, the countries eventually find themselves on the same tread trying to achieve common goals and objectives and this brings upon some common culture. If at all there is economic globalization studies done as well shows us that there is cultural globalization.
Global culture is based on the four common faces of global culture. Several factors which are believed to have resulted to a common culture globally are: the media whereby in most Africans social places you will find people enjoying the CNN channel, the language especially the English language (Jennifer, 160); its not a wonder to see German investors negotiating business with Chinese in English, religion has also created a strong bond in the whole nation as you will find protestants preachers spreading the gospel in India. This confirms that there are various ways through which the nations are treading on the same path.
The common theme of the whole world is to achieve a more peaceful world; global culture and global civil society are among the crucial factors which are leading us there. Among the common faces of global culture, the first one which shows the similarities in nation’s practices is the Davos culture (Mathews, 102). This culture encompasses global economic processes through international business. This identifies the behaviors that are functional economically. Huntington classifies the participants of this culture as the group of people in the whole world who knows how to work with computers, make use of cellular phones, applications of airline schedules, and above all participating in the exchange of currency (Mathews, 122). In addition, this group of people is identified through the same mode of dressing, common language of interaction mostly English and they tend to enjoy and relieve tension through similar ways. This is so because most of these traits are of western and those who happen to come from other backgrounds are bound to adapt the behaviors to undergo the process of socialization together and easy.
Internationally there are special occasions which call for special celebrations. For the Christian related occasions they are celebrated worldwide depending on the religion, some have got even a particular day on which to be selected (Mathews, 162). Other cultural occasions are celebrated in different nations almost in the same context marking a common culture globally.
Davos culture doesn’t necessarily work in the international businesses sites like offices, board rooms or in hotels only, but also in other fields. These cultures as well get into the participants lifestyles, values, and their overall private lives. Through this culture, the research done shows us that when the young African national congress exiles and the young Afrikaners met for their first time, the visual of the things left them surprised (Nash, 350). They shared a lot in lifestyle preferences and even in their personal values though they did not have common historical traditions. A similar case was as well reported when the Israelis first met the Palestinians on their way to conducting the Oslo agreements. The similarities and the sharing of the tastes and the preferences bring about the path for discovering a common political ground.
There are other two different types of cultural globalization. The first one is faculty club culture; it’s marked by creation of awareness internationally about the western values and the ideologies (Nash, 375). This culture has interacted fully with the business world although its main mover is not business. This culture is mainly based on the foundations, non governmental organizations, government and multinational bodies as well as academic linkages. Faculty club culture uses several ways to make its beliefs and values known to the nations (Nash, 396). Some of the methods used are the media, system of education, legal system, as well as think tank. When this culture is internationalizing the western intelligentsia, on the other hand it as well internationalizes the challenges which the intelligentsia faces on its home territories.
These challenges eventually become observable worldwide but with local solutions. Anti- smoking movement is a good example of this process of global culture. For a period of about twenty years, it has been so successful in the developed nations. It started like a small sect which was hardly noticed publicly. In North America and Western Europe, currently has achieved its goals which were to make smoking private for the adults only (Nash, 410). This movement was an original movement of western intellectuals and its awareness to the world was facilitated by the efforts of both governmental and non-governmental bodies. Through different conferences which were held, the world health organization spread the anti-smoking cause worldwide. Most of the individuals who participated were from health and education ministries from different nations.
The third popular culture is the Mc World culture which entails westernization. According to the most research done it shows that young people all over the world are funs of American music, American clothes especially t-shirts and jeans. The research shows that in most of the countries the highest level of sales in the clothing industries are for the clothes imported from the United States (Bulliet, 360). Most of these clothes for young people come with labels of the United Nations celebrities and institutions. This high level of sales for these clothes worldwide shows how the same level of generation globally is sharing some common interests. The older generation is also a fun of American movies and foods.
Culture as well is a significant symbol for beliefs and values but not only an outward behavior as majority takes it. For instance the rock music which is world widely accepted, majorities do not prefer it out of its loudness and athletic dancing but as well symbolizes some inner feelings (Bulliet, 375). Some cultural values like self expression and released- sexuality are indicated. It’s a great symbol of similar cultural values when a certain type of music becomes of interests of the majority in the world.
The fourth type of a culture is evangelical Protestantism through Pentecostal version. When compared with the Islamic revival its force of globalization is openly seen. The Islamic religion has been very common to the Islamic countries and Muslim Diaspora regions. On the other hand the evangelical Protestantism has been spreading to the different part of the world, even to the regions where the traditions of the religion has never been heard of (Bulliet, 420). In Latin America and East Asia, Evangelical Protestantism has led to the Cultural Revolution to some new territories. This culture comes up with some radical changes between the men and the women relations, in the education of the children and the way they are brought up and to the traditional hierarchies’ point of view.
By the use of Mayan translation, converts in Mexico and Guatemala are able to enjoy the American gospel music (Martson, 378). The evangelical Protestantism is a modernization culture whose origin is in the North Atlantic societies. Evangelicalism is a popular global movement which is dynamic as it is leading to the creation of the new international culture covering both the social, economic, and political aspects. Currently the Davos culture is completely internationalized as a result it is as much in Tokyo and Singapore as it is common in London and New York.
Globally, we are living in a world made in English, and in the near future there is no language has been seen which can be a successor to English. English language has already taken over to be the international medium especially in the fields of economic, technology, and the scientific interactions (Kawasaki, 110). Most people in the world are facilitated to learn the English language by the urge of participating in the global communications. Through the use of English as the media for communication, people in the world are in a position to discuss over a common agenda without barriers.
Internationally, there are some diseases which have probed and attacking people out of life styles. The fact is people all over the world have got different life styles since the time immemorial. To fight such diseases people are all adapting a common life style to get rid of such diseases from the society. This action has led to common eating habits globally. For the agricultural countries, the scientists are trying to make the soils favorable such that it can support the growth of some plants. This exercise is creating common types of plants, and the common eating habits globally which is helping in fighting some health related challenges.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the world is jointed together through some common practices. These similarities are the ones contributing positively towards the word growth and development. The growth of common needs and being faced by similar challenges is the key path towards the similarities in the world (Kawasaki, 106). The rapidly growing sector of telecommunication and digital computation is leading to emergence of global culture through the televisions, web, and the internet. In the past the culture was only common in the English speaking nations but currently English language has also become common in almost all nations making the culture to spread globally. The English language is dominant as it is the one commonly used in computation and in the international electronic communications.
To have a peaceful world there must be some common practices which are to be utilized to discuss the contentious issues. Religion which is spread and common internationally has played a great part in promoting a peaceful world. Global organizations which serve a common objective have also contributed towards the building of a peaceful world (Steinberg, 130). These bodies both governmental and non-governmental serve all the nations as they are faced with common challenges.
Works cited
Bulliet, R.W. The Earth And Its People: A Global History Since 1550, (2nd ed). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), 2000.
Jennifer, I.M. Religion and Global Culture: New Terrain in the Study of Religion. Lexington Books, 2004.
Kawasaki, et al. Global Culture: Media, Arts, Policy, and Globalization. Routledge, 2002.
Martson, S.A. and Knox, P.L. Places and Regions in Global Context: Human Geography, (2nd ed). Prentice Hall, 2001.
Mathews, G. Global Culture/Individual Identity: Searching For Home in the Cultural Supermarket. Routledge, 2000.
Nash, et al. human geography: places and regions in global context, (3 rd ed). Pearson Education, 2009.
Steinberg, L. Places and Regions in Global Context: Human Geography. Pearson Education, Limited, 2003.